(Edit: Good lord, I know you can't be arrested for speeding and this arrest had to be that he failed to take care of the ticket. I've written about that a million times before in connection with this Denton book-in Twitter account. But the guy who says this was "fail to control speed" might have a point. But the point was that if I were the original officer, I think I'd would have just written him a warning. It was comedy. But now a failed bit. Before 9:00 a.m.)

Dallas DA Susan Hawk dodged questions yesterday about her bizarre behavior saying it was time to "move forward." I wrote last week about how the Junior In The House tried to avoid reprimand by using the same line.

I haven't seen the Scientology documentary on HBO yet, but I will. Their beliefs sound crazy but Danny Balis stopped down the Hardline on The Ticket yesterday when he said, "You know, there are some pretty crazy things in the Bible, too."

That reminded me of a Julia Sweeney bit from a few years back when she compared Mormonism origins to Christianity origins and the faith that both groups have to have. (It's too hard to explain. I was just going to link to it and, I'll be dang, she did a "Ted Talk" about it. Two weeks ago I had never heard of Ted Talks and now I can't stop seeing references to them.)

Very crazy story about a lady leaving the King's Spa in Dallas and then leaving her seven year old in a trash bin outside of it for 10 hours. King's Spa is getting a bad rap here and is just an innocent bystander. I wrote about visiting that place after a neighbor family was headed there one morning. It is 100% opposite of what you would think it is.

There are some reports that the marijuana being legally sold in Colorado has some stuff in it that isn't marijuana. We are through with Big Tobacco lawsuits, but could there be a different round with marijuana?

On the news last night, a reporter introduced a lawyer as head of the Dallas Bar Association. The Sixth Grader in the house looked at me very confused and said, "bar association?" That is a little hard to explain.

Rolling Stones in Cowboys Stadium on June 6. I remember when they came through in the early 1980s and there was serious talk that it might be their last tour.

Strange story of the week: The Missouri state auditor killed himself last month and now the person who was his spokesman does the same thing.

Sean Hannity had both Ann Coulter and Dennis Prager on last night. No way I was going to subject myself to that.

Mrs. LL went to a trampoline park group workout last night (I'm still not clear on that) but there were also a group of special needs kids who just happen to be there. The kids began cheering on the women with unadulterated excitement. Mrs. LL said it was one of the inspiring and heartwarming things she had ever seen.

Pulled out the gas powered weedeater this weekend for the first time since last fall and it fired up on the very first pull. Nothing good happen after that to ruin the weekend.

Everyone was raving about the story in The Messenger about the new family over in Bridgeport who moved in with a group of star basketball players. It sounded glowing. I know nothing about them, but I like their kitchen.

Saw a tons of new stories yesterday about McDonald's considering offering its breakfast menu all day long. Was that an ad disguised as a news story? It was a national story so it would have cost a fortune, but McDonald's has a fortune.

But you got to like his concern for the guy when he keeps stepping out into the street. It's like he was thinking, "I just want to scare the guy but the last thing I need is for this moron to get hit by a car while we are filming this."

Lawyers in Houston are scratching their heads over a lavish honeymoon gift registryposted online by Harris County Family Court Judge Alicia Franklin and her fiancé, attorney Doug York.

We're joining in on the head-scratching, especially since the exposure of the site -- which describes the couple's plans to stay in Paris and the Maldives ("for a little r&r") -- comes on the heels of a report finding that Franklin collected $806,005 from the county for her work as a judge-appointed attorney between 2010 and 2014. More.

We bought one of those baseball "pitchback nets" again (the last one gave out after a couple of years.) I love those things. Although I did have an awkward moment in trying to assemble it without looking at the instructions since it was the exact same make and model of the last one. It didn't go well. Mrs. LL had to come out and do the "step aside" routine.

That Dallas DA situation has escalated quickly. There are even calls for her resignation, and I'm guessing she won't handle this pressure well.

The Junior in the House asked me the difference between "effect" and "affect" last night. Girl, I'm the last person you should ask about that.

Mrs. LL saw a huge, huge group of sports bikes on a highway in Fort Worth yesterday which were causing traffic to slow down to a standstill. I'm guessing they were doing stunts like we saw on Central Expressway a few years back.

I perked up when I saw that federal judge John McBryde in Fort Worth had allegedly made “disparaging, gender-discriminatory remarks” in connection with a defendant trying to delay her sentence because of a potential surgery. But the story didn't say what those remarks were. "The 5th Circuit issued a rare public reprimand of McBryde in 1995 over what it called his 'intemperate, abusive and intimidating treatment of lawyers, fellow judges and others.' He was suspended from receiving new cases for a year."

You want to know where we are heading? Consider this: 76,976 people showed up in stadium in California this weekend to watch Wrestlemania 31.

Doing a complete 180 from last week, the University of Texas fired Rick Barnes over the weekend. His exit press conference was eerily similar to Mack Brown's with a feeling of, "I have not been treated fairly and I'm going to tell you all about it some day."

I got Slumped Shoulder when I saw that Dance Mums UK was set to be recorded on the DVR. The. Whole. Series.

What a slow news weekend nationally and locally. The first three items in the Update were spring high school sports scores.

3.29.2015

I've mentioned before how Brian Cuban blocked me on Twitter. (He's Mark Cuban's brother for most of you who have no idea who he is.) The "blocking" was really odd because it was because of two of my replies to him about what he thought was ground breaking legal news but which was actually old legal news. (It was over a dog value case at the Texas Supreme Court. But wait, it gets sillier.). I don't think I had ever directed at a tweet to him before. And on that occasion I didn't call him names or harass him. Nevertheless, he did not appreciate being corrected about my opinion of the timeliness of his tweet and he blocked me. He even called me a "troll" as he announced that he was doing so.

That was hurtful but I thought I'd live.

For background, Cuban is a motivational speaker on overcoming "Male Eating Disorders" and addiction. I suspect overcoming any addiction requires incredible discipline and restraint. Remember that.

So . . . this morning I woke up to this. An incredibly loyal blog reader, who was at what I presume to be some seminar, had this pop up on the big screen and he tweeted the following.

That's funny. The guy reads Random Thoughts so often that he knows I've dogged Cuban before and he wanted to make a "callback" joke. I laughed and expected to move on until I scrolled down to the comments:

Holy crap. It's Brian Cuban! Cuban's comments were probably around 8:00 a.m. this morning. You know what's weird? For those who don't know Twitter, if someone mentions your handle with the "@" sign in a comment then it will show up in your timeline for you to see. That didn't happen here. Unless I'm technologically challenged (possible), he had to search for his name this morning and, once he saw that post, got so worked up that he responded to a stranger. Ok, maybe he's having a bad day. He without sin cast the first stone. (Side note: I think he means "I blocked" when he wrote "I deleted".)

But he didn't stop there. He searched me out and looked for any Twitter comments I've made recently (very rare for me, incidentally) and he then replied to a guy at the Wise County Messenger who was justifiably completely confused. A few back and forths from a couple of days back and then this from Cuban . . .

Heck, I'm confused. Poor Jake Harris had to feel Cuban was after him. But I'm guessing his comment was directed to only me. The youtube clip referenced in the first tweet was about a drug dealing state's witness on the stand comparing the defense lawyer who was questioning him to being no different than himself. (The Wire is great by the way.) For some reason Cuban thought I should be "sad and lonely" for doing "that". I can only presume he means "that" is doing criminal defense work. (Come to think about it, it can be very sad and lonely speaking up for people who oftentimes have no one else who cares about them, but I digress. Brian Cuban has a law degree but has never has been in a courtroom and no longer actively practices. But he's written about his past lawyer days, "When I made money, I spent it all on alcohol, plastic surgery, cocaine and steroids." Where's my blood pressure medicine?)

Then he added:

Everyone understands that I'm not the New York Times, right? I'm a spare guy in a small county who runs a blog for fun.

And then he continued hours later responding to the original seminar attendee:

Oooookay. A little harsh. But at least he threw in an emoticon (which I'm going to have to look up or ask the Kids In The House what it means.)

So you're probably asking how have I wronged the guy? Have I written about him for two years? There is no question I've mentioned Brian Cuban a few times in my daily Random Thoughts. I'm guessing he's been a bullet point probably four times in a goofy blog that has 15 to 20 bullet points every weekday, every year. I went back and looked and this has to be what pissed him off:

Was that mean and uncalled for? Yeah, it was a little harsh. I believe what I wrote but probably shouldn't have put it in those terms. I'm even a little embarrassed. I'd be mad too. (But I did inadvertently plug his book so he should at least be thankful for that.)

But here's what bugs me. He's a public figure. Heck, I think I'm a public figure in small county. And you know what comes with that? Having people say stuff about you which you might not like. I get kicked in the crotch by anonymous commentators every morning before 9:00 a.m. Some are insanely viscous. I've been called everything in the book. You know what I do? I post those comments. And I smile when I do it.

I really don't get into Twitter fights but I'll tell you this: The only people who have quickly blocked me because of my critical comments to them which they disagreed with are Jean Jacques Taylor (sports writer working somewhere), Michael Quinn Sullivan (he's a Tea Party leader who blocked me after the Texas Ethic Commission fined him and I asked him if that made him "an illegal"), and Brian Cuban. You know who hasn't? Ed "Uncle Bark" Barky who loves to fight, Mark Davis (he's probably the smartest one of all of us because he never replies) and Texas Supreme Court Justice Thomas Don Willett (who I've disagreed with to no end.)

And as I finish this up, I checked to see if he had any other updates. I'll be dang, he reposted his anger with me to everyone of his followers. Now I'm getting hate mail because they believe I have written about him for two years.

I'm sure he'll "get over" all of this. After all, he has to prepare for another speaking engagement -- speaking to those who need his advice and guidance.

3.27.2015

Edit: Always love the comments about how it's soooo different because it is pain medication. One comment on the DMN site said she wasn't doing "dope" and her problem happens to "normal" people. Good grief. Is that some kind of code? She was self-medicating. She had the resources to have a doctor who would write her a prescription (assuming she did everything "legal" and didn't doctor shop or lie about how she needed pills for physical pain.) I suppose those who aren't "normal" and self-medicate with drugs get locked up. And for all those who scream "one is legal and one is not!", are the people behind bars really that different from someone like Hawk who put a substance in her body to alter her state and got addicted? Then again, you look at her photo and bio realize there are differences -- just none that should matter about how we treat each other.

On Thursday, the online superstore started offering one-hour delivery to customers in two dozen Dallas ZIP codes. The initial eligible neighborhoods are in Irving and Dallas — basically south of the company’s Coppell fulfillment center and into downtown Dallas.The service, called Prime Now, is available to Amazon Prime members who pay $99 a year. One-hour delivery costs $7.99. If you can wait two hours, delivery is free. The service is available from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Considering that all of those zip codes are heavily populated with access to stores or every imaginable product in a short driving distance, answer this: Name one product that you would pay $7.99 for a one hour delivery? Or, put another way, is there any situation where you would need something so urgently that you wouldn't just get in the car and go get it?

So an 18 wheeler hits a bridge near Salado that is under construction and a massive support beam lands directly on the car of an Arlington man and killed him? Fear and respect the Butterfly Effect.

Fox 4 desperately tried to get the deceased guy's mother on tape for interview last night and even promoted it before she refused. Steve Eager, in explaining had they had failed to deliver, had the strangest comment when he told his audience some viewers may be "surprised" that she "wanted" to talk about the incident. It almost came across that he was trying to say, "Some of you idiot viewers might be surprised that a relative would not want to talk about the death of loved one immediately after it happens" but bailed out of it mid-sentence.

Harry Reid has announced he won't seek re-election. I doubt if it is connected to that mysterious eye injury, but I wouldn't rule it out. I wonder if something is going on.

Guy arrested after motorcycle chase in Dallas has a pretty cool book-in photo.

The Ticket boys were talking this morning about being packrats -- a habit which may be attributable to just wanting to hold onto memories instead of things. Junior Miller said that he's tried to not to do that because lately he is trying to "live in the moment." Mindfulness.

Had the sweetest moment with the Junior In The House last night when she walked through the door and, sensing something was wrong, I asked, "You OK?" She said "no", sat down, and began to tell me about it. That's probably commonplace to all of you but not to me.

Zayn Malik left One Direction this week.

OK, I was doing a bit there. Never heard of the guy. Don't know any of the band's songs. Just know everyone else was talking about it.

It sounds like Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes will not be fired. Does he have pictures of someone?

Hey, DFW media, there's a story behind this news release from Keller ISD: "In response to recent social media posts regarding 'promposals' at our high school campuses, Keller ISD does not grant permission for any student, regardless of gender, to conduct public prom invitations, or promposals, on campus during the school day. Any previous promposals that have occurred have done so without District approval. Promposals, and other similar public displays, may create a disruption to the academic setting, therefore they are not allowed for any student." I'm not saying an episode of Glee is breaking out, but an episode of Glee might be breaking out.

News this morning that constitutes a "Wow!": That Germanwings Flight 9525 which went down this week killing 150 appears to have been intentionally crashed by the co-pilot.

Flipped over to Mark Davis after the news broke and he first speculated it was part of a "Jihad". Good grief.

It still amazes me how a jetliner which hits the ground can cause the bodies on board to just disintegrate

Did you hear the crazy rant of the Duck Dynasty guy at a prayer breakfast? In addition to coming up with a hypothetical which seems borderline psychotic, he also believes being an atheist means a person has no sense of right or wrong. He probably just caused that horrible show to be cancelled. Or, sadly, its ratings to increase.

WBAP's Hal Jay heard that rant this morning, found the comments objectionable, but said, "I understand what he was trying to say." Really? You do?

At 6:00 p.m. yesterday, there were six females in our house. And me.

Sports: (1) Jerry Jones does not look well. (2) Heard a clip of Roger Goodell on The Ticket discussing the Cowboys signing of Greg Hardy and he had incredible Shake Voice. I wonder if he's getting a bad vibe about his job situation at the owners' meeting in Arizona. (3) TCU announced they will play Stanford in 2027. (4) The NFL will change the extra point rule in some way this year -- it is still to be determined. Unlike baseball, the NFL will trick up the game.

Tarrant County DA Sharen Wilson tweeted this morning that she was happy to speak at a meeting of the Boiling Point Tea Party. Who? That got me interested. I went to the group's website which has a mission statement that begins with: "Our intention is to support those elected officials who represent our conservative goals for this country. They are: -protect our constitution - no Sharia Law-". Good lord. And I love the picture in her tweet. The crowd is, as expected, older and white as well as presumably pissed off because of the "Boiling Point" name. And there's a picture of John Wayne in the background. I feel like I've just looked at a Far Side cartoon.

The Junior In The House missed some deadline at school, Mrs. LL expressed her frustration at her, and the Junior basically replied with, "It's in the past. Nothing can be done to change it. We just need to move on." I had to suppress my smile for her Dr. Phil type defense.

I went into an Apple Store this weekend. I almost felt like I was entering the future. And I felt like I didn't belong there.

I watched the Highland Park/OU kid's press conference complete with people who just happen to be African American in the background. I don't know if his apology was sincere, but I do know he realizes how society can crush you. I actually feel bad for the kid.